Coahoma Community College October 10, 2013 Lady Tigers Help Raise Cancer Awareness & Promote Healthy Living at Lyon The Coahoma Community College women's basketball team was on hand Wednesday after noon in support of Lyon Elementary School's Community Walk and its efforts to raise cancer awareness and to promote healthy living within its students. The players, students, faculty and community members participated in the walk and used the time to speak with students about the importance of both early warning signs and education; and also to talk about the importance of living healthy. "Lyon Elementary has kind of adopted us, we've read to the kids, played them in a basketball game, and we're always happy anytime they ask us to come out and help them with something," said Head Basketball Coach Lacole Brooks, "and, we're always recruiting future Tigers." The pairing of the basketball team with the students helped to show the students how being active and participating in sports and exercising regularly would be beneficial to them both now, and later in their lives. "Something as easy as walking is a great way to start these students out on the road to a healthy lifestyle," said Brooks. "We want to encourage them to get active, and our kids really enjoy getting out and helping in the community. That's a big part about our students and athletes here at Coahoma, the are community-minded and they enjoy helping out." In addition to raising awareness for Breast Cancer, Wednesday (Oct. 9th) was also National Walk to School Day. "This is one of our health initiatives to promote good health amongst our children, and since most of our kids are bused to school, this is a way that we can get them outside and exercising," said Lyon Elementary Principal Crystal Hall-Gooden. "Each year we invite the (Lady Tigers) out to the walk, and they also come out and support a lot of the other things that we do as well. We appreciate them coming out and supporting us, and the kids love them being out here." And the feelings are reciprocal from the Lady Tigers. "The kids like us being here, and they look up to us," said Freshman basketball player Josta Totten from Greenwood. "We enjoy being here with them, and we like to help out in the community." "We wanted to come out and support good things in our community," said Aaliyah Irby, a freshman from Chicago. "We love being out here with the kids." But Lyon second-grader Ashley Carter summed it up best. "I love (the Lady Tigers) being out her with us, and I'm very thankful for them." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.